- Email: [email protected]
Environmental protection of the North Sea
Marine Pollution Bulletin
The set point values, measured conductivity and temperature values can be read directly. All other parameters are accessible by use of a programmable security code which maintains instrument integrity and protects against unauthorised changes. Operator facilities include programming of the units of measurement for conductivity microsiemens/cm, microsiemens/m, millisiemens/cm, millisiemens/m and for resistivity megohm-cm and megohm-m. An available option is a serial data interface to RS485 enabling the instrument to be linked directly to a host computer through which the operator may read/change the various parameters. Further information is available from Kent Industrial Measurements Limited, Howard Road, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE 19 3EU, UK.
fahrenheit, --76°-1400 *) it is accurate to 0.7% + 1° with digital readout. The new CP thermocouple thermometer is powered by a 9-volt battery for portability, fits in a breast pocket and comes with pocket clip. A wide selection of probes is available covering popular uses including hypodermic, chisel, air, and surface measurement. For further details contact CP Instrument Co. Limited, PO Box 22, Bishops Stortford, Herts. CM23 3DH, UK.
New Durable Thermometer The CP Instrument Company has launched a new lightweight hand-held stainless steel digital thermometer of very durable construction. The instrument originally aimed at the food processing industry is contained in a tough stainless steel casing and makes it also suitable for harsh environments and extremes of ambient temperature ranging from --60* to 760°C (switchable to
Yet More on the North Sea Environmental Protection of the North Sea, P. J. Newman and A. R. Agg, editors. Heinemann, Oxford, 1988. xxviii+886 pp. Price, £85.00. ISBN 0 434 91370 7. This volume contains the proceedings of the international conference of the North Sea hosted by the Water Research Centre and the World Health Organization and held at the International Maritime Organization in London in March 1987 (see Mar. Pollut. Bull., 18, 251). WRC published a document giving the conclusions agreed at the conference in good time for consideration at the ministerial conference on the North Sea held in November, 1987, and now the full conference proceedings are published with commendable and unusual speed in little more than a year. Speed of publication notwithstanding, compared with many conference proceedings or even multi-author volumes, this is remarkably good. The contributions are expert and well-informed but, more unusual, they cohere and interact. The discussions that follow each section have been skilfully edited so that they are readable, pertinent and revealing. The book could serve as a model for organizers of future meetings and editors of conference proceedings. It is an impertinence to immortalize in print (and still more expect people to pay good money--generally rather a lot of it--for the privi546
CP Instruments new stainless steel thermometer.
lege of reading) irrelevant, inadequate contributions and verbatim reports of ungrammatical, inconsequential, or uninformed discussions. To avoid these faults, tough editors are needed and this volume has had them. The main part of the book is in seven sections, dealing with: organic chemicals; nutrients; heavy metals; microbial contamination and littoral pollution; contamination from the oil and related industries; environmental management of the North Sea; and models and monitoring. Each section concludes with a discussion which reads rather like well-written minutes of a committee meeting, with the major points raised by contributors, and the answers to them, summarized and the conclusions clearly drawn. As an appendix, the book contains 19 additional papers, for no obvious reason divided into five "support papers" and 14 "poster papers". These differ from papers in the first section of the book in that they deal with narrower and more specific topics, instead of the North Sea 'problem'. There is also a list of delegates (over 250 of them, from 14 countries, including the North Sea states, Canada, and the USA). The contributors were an interesting and fruitful mix of scientists, drawn from universities and independent institutes, from government laboratories where they are at the practical sharp end of investigations and regulation, from industry, and from conservationist organizations. Given, too, the different attitudes to the management of the North Sea between the coastal states, there was ample scope for controversy in the conference. But it appears to have been a constructive controversy. This
Volume 19/Number 10/October 1988
is revealed as much as anywhere in the section on Environmental Management of the North Sea. Despite the wide divergence of views, the contributions are all substantial, well-argued and documented, and measured in tone. In the discussion that followed, there was an encouraging effort to seek common ground and to understand the rationale underlying the differences that remain. This applies also to the other, perhaps less controversial, sections, though "Models and Monitoring" is an area of raised temperatures. It was a stroke of genius on the organizers' part to invite an outsider to sum up the conference. Dr J. M. Bewers, a Canadian, took the conference to task for its imprecise use of terminology and for a certain philosophical slackness. Of course, he is right, but perhaps the North Sea scientists involved have been talking to each other for so long that they mentally translate each other's solecisms. That clearly will not do, and the sooner environmental pollution studies are discussed with the same discipline that is customary in nuclear physics or biochemistry, the better for their reputation as a serious scientific pursuit. He also pointed to a certain disregard for the wide margin of uncertainty attached to some of the figures that were being bandied about, e.g. on atmospheric inputs. This perceptive summing-up identifies areas where more science is
needed but is particularly good in indicating where clear thinking is required about objectives and approaches. Even if this book is an unusually good record of a remarkably productive conference, that will not be enough to encourage most people to rush out and buy it. Apart from its interest for anyone concerned with the present international controversy about the future wise management of the North Sea, the contributory chapters in the book can be recommended as authoritative accounts of the subjects treated. The subject matter is geographically limited, but as Dr Bewers points out, "the North Sea together with the Baltic have probably received the greatest multilateral regulatory and astute scientific attention of all similar seas worldwide", and to have in one volume a comprehensive over-view of current scientific knowledge and (admittedly divergent) interpretations of the impact of waste discharges to the North Sea should be of great value to a wide audience. The book is well printed (none of your "cameraready' stuff), well bound, well indexed, well produced, and at less than £10 per 100 pages, not excessively priced. Compliments to the editors and publishers. Strongly recommended. R. B. C L A R K
547
The set point values, measured conductivity and temperature values can be read directly. All other parameters are accessible by use of a programmable security code which maintains instrument integrity and protects against unauthorised changes. Operator facilities include programming of the units of measurement for conductivity microsiemens/cm, microsiemens/m, millisiemens/cm, millisiemens/m and for resistivity megohm-cm and megohm-m. An available option is a serial data interface to RS485 enabling the instrument to be linked directly to a host computer through which the operator may read/change the various parameters. Further information is available from Kent Industrial Measurements Limited, Howard Road, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE 19 3EU, UK.
fahrenheit, --76°-1400 *) it is accurate to 0.7% + 1° with digital readout. The new CP thermocouple thermometer is powered by a 9-volt battery for portability, fits in a breast pocket and comes with pocket clip. A wide selection of probes is available covering popular uses including hypodermic, chisel, air, and surface measurement. For further details contact CP Instrument Co. Limited, PO Box 22, Bishops Stortford, Herts. CM23 3DH, UK.
New Durable Thermometer The CP Instrument Company has launched a new lightweight hand-held stainless steel digital thermometer of very durable construction. The instrument originally aimed at the food processing industry is contained in a tough stainless steel casing and makes it also suitable for harsh environments and extremes of ambient temperature ranging from --60* to 760°C (switchable to
Yet More on the North Sea Environmental Protection of the North Sea, P. J. Newman and A. R. Agg, editors. Heinemann, Oxford, 1988. xxviii+886 pp. Price, £85.00. ISBN 0 434 91370 7. This volume contains the proceedings of the international conference of the North Sea hosted by the Water Research Centre and the World Health Organization and held at the International Maritime Organization in London in March 1987 (see Mar. Pollut. Bull., 18, 251). WRC published a document giving the conclusions agreed at the conference in good time for consideration at the ministerial conference on the North Sea held in November, 1987, and now the full conference proceedings are published with commendable and unusual speed in little more than a year. Speed of publication notwithstanding, compared with many conference proceedings or even multi-author volumes, this is remarkably good. The contributions are expert and well-informed but, more unusual, they cohere and interact. The discussions that follow each section have been skilfully edited so that they are readable, pertinent and revealing. The book could serve as a model for organizers of future meetings and editors of conference proceedings. It is an impertinence to immortalize in print (and still more expect people to pay good money--generally rather a lot of it--for the privi546
CP Instruments new stainless steel thermometer.
lege of reading) irrelevant, inadequate contributions and verbatim reports of ungrammatical, inconsequential, or uninformed discussions. To avoid these faults, tough editors are needed and this volume has had them. The main part of the book is in seven sections, dealing with: organic chemicals; nutrients; heavy metals; microbial contamination and littoral pollution; contamination from the oil and related industries; environmental management of the North Sea; and models and monitoring. Each section concludes with a discussion which reads rather like well-written minutes of a committee meeting, with the major points raised by contributors, and the answers to them, summarized and the conclusions clearly drawn. As an appendix, the book contains 19 additional papers, for no obvious reason divided into five "support papers" and 14 "poster papers". These differ from papers in the first section of the book in that they deal with narrower and more specific topics, instead of the North Sea 'problem'. There is also a list of delegates (over 250 of them, from 14 countries, including the North Sea states, Canada, and the USA). The contributors were an interesting and fruitful mix of scientists, drawn from universities and independent institutes, from government laboratories where they are at the practical sharp end of investigations and regulation, from industry, and from conservationist organizations. Given, too, the different attitudes to the management of the North Sea between the coastal states, there was ample scope for controversy in the conference. But it appears to have been a constructive controversy. This
Volume 19/Number 10/October 1988
is revealed as much as anywhere in the section on Environmental Management of the North Sea. Despite the wide divergence of views, the contributions are all substantial, well-argued and documented, and measured in tone. In the discussion that followed, there was an encouraging effort to seek common ground and to understand the rationale underlying the differences that remain. This applies also to the other, perhaps less controversial, sections, though "Models and Monitoring" is an area of raised temperatures. It was a stroke of genius on the organizers' part to invite an outsider to sum up the conference. Dr J. M. Bewers, a Canadian, took the conference to task for its imprecise use of terminology and for a certain philosophical slackness. Of course, he is right, but perhaps the North Sea scientists involved have been talking to each other for so long that they mentally translate each other's solecisms. That clearly will not do, and the sooner environmental pollution studies are discussed with the same discipline that is customary in nuclear physics or biochemistry, the better for their reputation as a serious scientific pursuit. He also pointed to a certain disregard for the wide margin of uncertainty attached to some of the figures that were being bandied about, e.g. on atmospheric inputs. This perceptive summing-up identifies areas where more science is
needed but is particularly good in indicating where clear thinking is required about objectives and approaches. Even if this book is an unusually good record of a remarkably productive conference, that will not be enough to encourage most people to rush out and buy it. Apart from its interest for anyone concerned with the present international controversy about the future wise management of the North Sea, the contributory chapters in the book can be recommended as authoritative accounts of the subjects treated. The subject matter is geographically limited, but as Dr Bewers points out, "the North Sea together with the Baltic have probably received the greatest multilateral regulatory and astute scientific attention of all similar seas worldwide", and to have in one volume a comprehensive over-view of current scientific knowledge and (admittedly divergent) interpretations of the impact of waste discharges to the North Sea should be of great value to a wide audience. The book is well printed (none of your "cameraready' stuff), well bound, well indexed, well produced, and at less than £10 per 100 pages, not excessively priced. Compliments to the editors and publishers. Strongly recommended. R. B. C L A R K
547